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Popular myths about VPN logging debunked

Lately, we have noticed an increased concern regarding our policies and trust in VPN as a service in general. NordVPN has always believed in people’s right to privacy, and we have always remained true to our mission – to offer secure access to the Internet without borders and protect our customers’ freedom to keep things to themselves.

Over the past few days, we’ve noticed various VPN-related questions rising, especially regarding usage logs. It is completely natural and understandable to be privacy–conscious and to seek transparency from a service you decide to trust with protection of your sensitive data. For this reason, we feel that a couple of popular myths and prejudices should be debunked.

So, here we go:

Myth #1: All VPNs log a certain amount of sensitive user information.

Definitely not all of them. As in most cases in life and business, generalizations are not helpful. NordVPN does not keep logs. And even though we can only speak for ourselves, we are most likely not the only ones in the market operating this way. If we say we do not keep logs, we mean it. That’s the foundation of our service and the promise to our users that we are committed to keep.

Myth #2: Anyone who runs a large IT infrastructure knows that not to log anything is impossible.

Alright, let’s get things sorted out a bit here. Not to log anything might actually be impossible. However, not to log any identifiable information about customers is not that hard. It’s rather a choice.

It all depends on how a VPN service provider builds its infrastructure. They can choose not to log any traffic and IP addresses. You may ask: how are users authenticated then? In fact, it’s not complicated at all and can easily be done without identifying any user details. When a user tries to log in to connect to VPN, a request is sent to the authentication server. It runs a check within its database to see whether the user credentials – the username and password – are valid. If there’s a match, bingo – the user connects to the VPN server.

Meanwhile, traffic and connection logs are simply not being saved. And what isn’t saved, can’t be stored, right?

We at NordVPN are thankful to all our users who have chosen us, and we truly hope that busting these popular myths will give you peace of mind. Our no logs policy is strict for a reason – NordVPN will always stand for a right to online privacy, and we seek to deliver our promise with honesty, transparency, and respect to every user.